–
Most popular communication channels within industry sectors
While the overarching goal of financial services organizations is broadly similar, the way in which sectors of the industry operate is distinct. The communication channels prioritized by a firm will be dependent on myriad factors, including their client base, how they promote products, and their internal and external communications strategies.
Looking more closely at Global Relay’s Connector accounts, we are able to divide the data into four distinct sectors: Investment Managers and Advisors, Broker-Dealers, Hedge Funds and Wealth Managers, and Private Equity.
As expected, almost all industry sectors feature a combination of email, internal chat, and a financial messaging channel within their top five most popular Connectors. These three communication channels form the trifecta of effective operation within financial services.
What is less expected is that all four industry sectors feature social media channels within their top 10 most popularly captured data types. The extent to which industry sectors are capturing social media, however, does differ significantly.
Due to the nature of how Investment Managers and Broker-Dealers conduct business, both have similar priorities with regard to communication capture. Both industry sectors have a clear appetite to capture “traditional” channels and emerging channels that pose potential communication risks, from email to Facebook.
There is a clear proclivity for Investment Managers and Broker-Dealers to prioritize the capture of external communication, with email, LinkedIn, and X being the most commonly captured communication channels. In comparison, Hedge Funds and Wealth Managers, as well as Private Equity, tend to prioritize the capture of more “traditional” communication channels, with the previously mentioned trifecta featuring more prominently.
The way that these firms prioritize data capture is indicative of how they are interacting internally, with clients and with prospects. While Investment Managers and Broker-Dealers adopt a faster, more consumer-focused approach to financial services, Hedge Funds and Private Equity accounts appear to be communicating through more conventional channels – or at least prioritizing the capture of those communication types. This may also reflect how these sectors approach the channels they allow employees to access, in order to control how sensitive internal information is disseminated and managed, and reduce insider trading risk.
The introduction of the SEC’s new Marketing Rule in the U.S., paired with regulatory developments to prioritize customer-focused communications – such as Regulation Best Interest (also U.S.), and the U.K. Consumer Duty – will have some bearing on the Connectors that firms are implementing, especially with regard to the capture of social media and website data.
Financial messaging platforms, such as Instant Bloomberg (Bloomberg Chat) and Refinitiv Messenger, have remained as yet untouched by financial regulators in their clampdown on recordkeeping and off-channel communications.
For more on new and amended recordkeeping regulations, see: Appendix, Regulations, rules, and relevant enforcement action.
